First thing Friday, 2.17.06

Martin Ludlow's possible political demise is what the clued-in class will be chattering about this morning, but there's also a Republican move to break up the school district ahead of Mayor Villaraigosa's plan, a new high in L.A. private school tuition, Ken Starr trying to stop an execution, News Corp. trying to clean up MySpace and Phil Anschutz finally makes some noise about an L.A. Examiner. Also below: Chris Penn's life revisited.

As you can see, I'm trying out Google ads to see if they are worth the visual disruption. My first reaction is they fit in all right, but they better become smarter in a hurry. For now Google's vaunted algorithms have decided that LA Observed readers are looking for Catholic singles and religious gear. Maybe, but I don't think so....

♦ Republican Assemblyman Keith Richman—the one who was "elected" mayor of the Valley in the 2002 secession election— proposed breaking up LAUSD into a dozen smaller districts to be overseen by a nine-member commission of educators and mayors from the 27 cities that belong to the school district.

♦ Tuition at The Marlborough School is headed north of $25,000 and other L.A. private schools are creeping closer to the threshold, the LAT says.

♦ Pepperdine Law School Dean Kenneth Starr says in the Daily Journal and the Times that he still believes that death row inmate Michael Morales deserves clemency from Gov. Schwarzenegger, despite forged statements filed on the prisoner's behalf. His case is persuasive, Starr says: “If I were the governor...I would not want to allow that death sentence to stand.”

♦ Phil Anschutz registered the domain name LosAngelesExaminer.com, but his people say there are no current plans to expand his fledgling newspaper chain here.

♦ News Corp.'s steps to "make MySpace a safer place for young people" include a "safety czar" to oversee the site, letters to schools and public-service announcements, and possibly limiting some access to users over 18, the Wall Street Journal reports.

♦ Also free at WSJ.com today, Hollywood columnist John Lippman looks at why so many films these days are based (very loosely) on real events.

♦ The LAT's Tina Daunt recreates the life of Chris Penn, whose main hangout was his stool at the far end of the bar at Locando del Lago on Third Street Promenade.